In “Overwatch” Competitive Play, players always have their go-to heroes. Some go for DPS characters, while others settle themselves with support. Apparently, there are characters in the game that barely get picked or, much worse, underperform in competitive matches.
According to PVP Live, the three “Overwatch” heroes that continue to bear pain in competitive matches are Hanzo, Sombra, and Junkrat. This is not to take anything away from these characters, as all of them are unique in their own ways. However, in player perspective, they are not compelling enough to help win matches.
What is up with these heroes anyway
Among the three, Junkrat seems to have found peace in the lower tier rankings in which his playtime has spiked significantly. But then again, this is only applicable in said tiers. His charms do not work with high-ranking players, most especially in the Platinum tier. As for Hanzo and Sombra, they are at the lowest. They are either underplayed or picked only during niche situations, but regardless, their playtime is at an all-time low.
In the Bronze and Silver tier rankings, Junkrat dramatically dropped 1by0 percent usage just after Gold in “Overwatch.” This is exactly synonymous to Hanzo and Sombra’s playtimes, though applicable in all tiers. Unfortunately, this is not the first time that these heroes reach such playtime score in competitive matches.
They have since ranked low in the list as far as players can remember. As a result, many are wondering if Blizzard is doing something to turn the tide for these characters. Kaplan, though, offered his two cents and said that these are situations where the studio needs to be very careful. He explained that the moment an incorrect tweak happens, it would completely disturb the balance of heroes and would only make things worse.
Why the low playtime
It holds true, though, that the developers of “Overwatch” have introduced buffs to the aforementioned heroes. In fact, these changes can even be felt when playing the game. However, the unappealing traits of the heroes come from the fact that players when ranking go for certain comp. The dive comp, for instance, is considered to be the most popular comp right now in the game.
It makes use of high-mobile heroes in order to eliminate enemies quickly and easily. Clearly, none of the three (i.e. Hanzo, Sombra and Junkrat) can provide high mobility. As a result, players choose Genji, Winston and Trace, among others, over them.
Basically, this all boils down to making other team comp more significant in the game. Dive comp quickly became popular because it is easy to use and, more importantly, it is a working strategy. Perhaps Blizzard can buff and/or nerf heroes to balance the picks and team comp in the game. Such as wishful thinking, but it can certainly do wonders.
